The Book of the It

By Georg Groddeck

Book Overview

2015 Reprint of 1961 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition. Not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Georg Groddeck was a physician and writer regarded as a pioneer of psychosomatic medicine. Groddeck is often mistaken for an orthodox disciple of Sigmund Freud; indeed, he was perhaps the only analyst whose views had some effect on Freud. Freud mentions Groddeck in "The Ego and the Id," crediting him with giving a name to what Freud had already given a local habitation, to wit, the Id. The "Book of the It" is an unusual work in which each chapter is in the form of a letter to a girlfriend addressed as "my dear". Groddeck attempts to unlock Eros, the instinctual drive chained by conventions of society, and to show it to be the unknown life-force that animates man from womb to grave. It is, according to Groddeck, the basic sexual motivation that influences every aspect of individual personality. In understanding the "It", man frees himself to understand the inexplicable desires and the hidden impulses that guide his life. Contains a new introduction by Ashley Montagu.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1614277761
• ISBN13: 9781614277767
• Release Date: February 2015
• Publisher: Martino Fine Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

The psychologist who taught Freud the concept of the "Unconscious"

This is a good book for those psychologists and students of psychology who want to explore where Herr Dr. Joy (which is the English translation of 'freude') received his understandings of the Unconscious. Many people think Freud simply came up with the concept on his own after working with his patients. Not so. He simply popularized the concept outside of Germany. I found this a fun book to read when I was in college at the University of Michigan, much more entertaining than reading Freud's materials. Freud was fairly stuffy overall, Groddeck seems to have a much better sense of playfulness in his writing.

The Book of the It by Groddeck with Introduction by Lawrence Durrell

This is a fascinating book whose author's contribution to psychoanalysis is not given enough credit. His concept of the 'It' influenced Freud's Id, but its scope is wider. Groddeck sees the It as the central active component of the psyche. In addition,he was the first doctor explore the psyche as a cause of organic disease. Groddeck undertook psychoanalysis in a method of treating organic disease in contrast to Freud's treatment of pathologies of the mind. Not all of his statements are to be taken seriously, he notes. And indeed some of them do strain the imagination. But the book is eminently readable and the Introduction by Durrell captures Groddeck's contributions perfectly.